Mass media uses to structure of human narratives to explain animal behaviors. In so doing, nature documentaries exploit animals to tell us more about ourselves rather than what it means to be animal.

Be good to them always

Date May 2014

Medium Graphite, hand bound book

Dimensions 7.3 x 7.3 in

Be good to them always proposes: we readily ascribe human language to animal lives in an attempt to empathize and understand them.

The book takes images from classic televised nature documentaries and pairs them with clips of language as compiled in the eponymous collage song by The Books, whose work collects language from VHS tapes, voicemails, self-help cassettes, and other discarded ephemera. Juxtaposing human remarks far removed from their original context with equally removed images of animals causes the reader to attribute and interpret the quotes as originating from the animals themselves.